


Almost Safe

by orphan_account



Series: Stark Tower Snapshots [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, OT3, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 13:25:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5092418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha gives in, reluctantly accepting Pepper's offer of safety in Stark Tower after the events of CA:TWS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Safe

“You always have a place here, you know.” 

Pepper's words echoed in Natasha's mind every so often, but she had been doing her best to ignore them. She had made this PR mess for herself by dumping everything on the internet, and she was determined to clean it up on her own, too. 

Or at least, that had been her goal at first. After months of being on the run, having to abandon alias after alias, Natasha was tired, even if she would never admit it to herself. Pepper's offer had been growing more and more tempting, even though her mind screamed at her that she would be weak for taking her up on it. Natasha had never been one to accept help. 

Then, her most recent alias exploded in her face, and she had had a very near miss with Hydra. It made sense that they would have a vendetta against her for spilling all their information, but they were becoming too much of a threat for her to handle on her own, and she hated them even more for it. 

So that was why she found herself waiting outside Pepper Potts' office, feeling like a dog with her tail between her legs. Pepper let Natasha in once she was notified of the other woman's presence, and to Natasha's surprise, she was suddenly enveloped in a brief hug. Pepper let go of her fairly quickly though, likely sensing Natasha's discomfort with sudden physical touch.

“I'm so glad you're all right, Natasha,” Pepper said, and Natasha stared blankly for a moment, not sure how to react. She supposed she could call Pepper a friend now, but affection still sort of broke her brain a little. 

“Thanks for taking me in. It's good to see you,” Natasha managed, hoping she wasn't coming off as a complete emotionless robot. After years of faking emotion for aliases, she found it difficult to convey emotion when it was genuine, and often felt like her face was a computer that encountered an error and failed to emote. 

“It's good to see you, too. Maria's been made aware of the particular Hydra threat tailing you, but the default state around here is 'Hydra is threatening us,' so this is business as usual.” Pepper made to leave the room, beckoning for Natasha to follow her. “I'm all done with meetings for the day, so let me show you your quarters.”

Natasha almost protested, wanting to say that Pepper didn't have to give up her time for her, but part of her was glad to have a little more time to spend with Pepper. She couldn't say she trusted the other woman completely, but Pepper was someone Natasha  _ wanted _ to trust, which said a lot. Maria too. 

Pepper led Natasha to a spacious apartment on one of the top floors, and Natasha barely managed to stop her eyes from bugging out a little. She had stayed in spacious quarters before on missions, but this was a place where she could actually  _ live _ ,  and it was entirely more luxurious than she was accustomed to. She was used to spartan, small spaces, so this was going to take some adjustment. Maybe she could just hang out in the bedroom, mostly, and make that hers. 

“Pepper, this is above and beyond - “ 

“There's quarters like this for the whole team, if they decide to move in. A gift from Tony. But right now, besides him, it's just us and Maria. Her quarters are across from yours, and then mine are upstairs if you need me.” Pepper gestured to the door, where Natasha saw a little panel attached to the wall. “JARVIS will open the door for you by identifying your retina, but I think you were used to that already, with SHIELD.” Natasha nodded, feeling more than a little overwhelmed. She knew she wasn't completely safe here, but now that she was actually inside the building, it felt pretty damn close to safe. Maybe things would be better with people around after all. 

P epper explained the layout of the rest of the floor, and Natasha doubted she would actually use any of it except the kitchen. She was here to be safe, not to be social. And if she knew Maria, the other woman probably wasn't going to leave her quarters much either. The two of them were incredibly reclusive, and of the three of them, Pepper was the one with people skills. Natasha realized she had zoned out, and that Pepper was still talking. She forced herself to pay attention again, hoping she hadn't missed anything important.

“Would you like to do that, Natasha?” Pepper looked down at the shorter woman, and Natasha felt a twist of embarrassment, having not been paying attention.

“Sorry, everything just kind of hit me, and I zoned out. Can you tell me what you said again?” Natasha asked, and Pepper nodded.

“I was saying that Maria and I are having dinner together in one of the company restaurants tonight, and since you're here now, I was wondering if you would like to come along.” 

Natasha blinked in surprise, and very nearly said no out of sheer habit. She went out for dinner on missions, not with friends. Something about Pepper's face made the word catch in her throat, though, and after a moment, she found herself nodding.

“I'd like that a lot, actually.” 

–

Apparently, this was what Pepper called a 'girls night.' Natasha wasn't entirely sure if she liked it yet, but she was glad to see Maria again. She and Maria were longtime friends now, and she was still incredibly relieved that Maria hadn't turned out to be Hydra. It had been bad enough to see so many betrayals within SHIELD, but if people close to her had been Hydra all along, Natasha didn't want to think about how much damage that would have done to her. 

Both Maria and Pepper cleaned up incredibly well, and Natasha found herself very aware of how attractive they both were. She had always carried a bit of a flame for Maria, and her time as Natalie Rushman had given her a small crush on Pepper, but she had convinced herself it was mostly because she admired the other two women, both of whom were incredibly good at what they did. The fact that they were both incredibly easy on the eyes was just a bonus, in her opinion. 

Natasha herself didn't clean up half bad either, and she was wearing an emerald green dress shirt for the occasion, along with black dress slacks. Maria had told her once that wearing green brought out her eyes, and even though it was silly, she wanted to look pretty for the two of them, in case they noticed.  Pepper wore white, which she always looked good in, and Maria wore dark blue. Natasha wondered briefly if Maria owned clothes in any other color. 

“I didn't get a reservation at the super fancy restaurant, since this is more of a casual night out, so I hope regular old restaurant food is okay,” Pepper said once they were given their menus, and Natasha perused the selections, glad that there was food she had actually heard of, and not fancy gourmet things.

“That's more than fine with me. Tasha and I were used to the SHIELD cafeteria, and I can bet you whatever we get here will be a million times better than that slop,” Maria said, and Natasha found herself smiling a little at the use of the nickname. She wouldn't let most people get away with that, but from Maria, it felt nice, and made her feel a little warm inside. 

“When I was first getting used to SHIELD, Clint told me that I needed to try the meatloaf, and that it was an American specialty. I've never quite forgiven him for that.” Natasha said, laughing a little. 

“Meatloaf, more like meat _brick_ , _”_ Maria said, and Pepper wrinkled her nose in disgust. 

“That sounds horrifying, frankly. Glad I missed out on that.”

As the evening went on, it became a lot easier for Natasha to banter back and forth with the other two women, and she finally felt herself begin to relax after what seemed like forever. She couldn't remember the last time she'd really had the chance to blow off some steam, much less in good – and attractive – company.  They finished up their food fairly quickly, but stayed in the restaurant for a while after that, nursing a bottle of wine  among the three of them.

“We should do this more often.” Natasha surprised herself as the words fell out of her mouth, the wine probably assisting her a little. Pepper blinked in surprise, and her lips curved into a smile. Maria grinned at her, and Natasha felt a little flutter in her chest. Which was _incredibly_ silly of her, so she'd blame it on the wine, and the fact that she was very privileged to be one of the few people Maria would smile for. 

“How about Friday nights? That'll keep you from working too much overtime, Pepper,” Maria said, teasing the strawberry blonde, although her tone wasn't unkind. “This one - “ Maria pointed at Pepper. “ - keeps forgetting to eat dinner because she's too busy working into the wee hours of the morning. I can't seem to stop her on my own, but maybe the two of us can wrangle her a bit into more sensible working hours.”

“I am not _livestock_ , there's nothing here to wrangle - “ Pepper protested, but her words formed around a laugh, and Natasha found herself laughing too, absolutely sure that what Maria said was true. All three of them were arguably workaholics, but Pepper was probably the worst of all. 

“Well, come out with us next Friday night then. No wrangling necessary,” Natasha said. 

“All right, all right. It's a date, then.”

Not that kind of date, probably. But a girl could hope. 


End file.
